Dvorah's family dinner

Monday 19 September

Our dear friend Dvorah and her family - sister Ziona, her husband Miko, brother Aytan, and his wife Lyla - were doing a road trip after a family wedding, and we were delighted to hear that they were coming through Cincinnati.  So it was a kosher vegetarian dinner for seven!

 We started, of course, with appetizers to sit down and chat over, with a nice pour of chardonnay, coke, or lemon balm iced tea.  Barbara made two batches of goat cheese spread, one with fresh garden herbs, the other with oil-cured tomatoes.  There were dolmas, and Holt's own cornichons; then we jazzed up Dean's festive and mediterranean blend olives with some rosemary, thyme, and fresh olive oil, and laid out a platter of smoked salmon, flanked with fresh zephyr squash chips (thanks, Benriner!) and sour cream.  Oh, and the caponata we made a few weeks ago - keeps great in a jar in the fridge.  

Holt made his fabulous focaccia, with fresh rosemary chopped into the dough.  Unfortunately, Dora the Explorer decided to take a little walk across the rising dough; you could see her little catprint in it, but luckily there was a towel on top, and it tasted just fine while raising a few indulgent chuckles.  

Then we sat down at the table to the feast of vegetable contorni we'd prepared: little new potatoes boiled with turmuric; heirloom tomatoes and purple basil on a bed of arugula; roasted red peppers dressed with olive oil, garlic and capers; Lidia's Ligurian green beans (just parboil, cool in water, then french the beans; sauté a couple of cracked garlic cloves in a pan of olive oil, add some anchovy fillets and break up; then toss in green beans and mix around); roasted asparagus and batons of heirloom carrots; the late unlamented chickpeas, which we'd kept frozen, now cooked till absolutely tender and simmered with onions fried with hefty shots of coriander, cumin, and smoked paprika, then with parboiled collard greens; and Dvorah's own recipe for pickled beets and turnips.  

Once there was space on the table, we added the main dish, Lidia's Bagnara swordfish with plenty of lemon and capers.  Of course, everything was served family-style.

Dessert was Jacques Pepin's classic recipe for fruit tart pastry, filled with fresh South Carolina peaches - and for honored visitors, Graeter's peach and coconut chip ice cream to go on top.

As they say in China, what a fress.